Pence directing aid to Christians
US to send millions of dollars of aid to Iraq’s Christian and Yazidi communities
The premier US aid agency is poised to send millions of dollars directly to Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq under a rarely used, streamlined funding arrangement after coming under pressure from Vice-President Mike Pence.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will give $10 million (Dh36.7 million) to two umbrella groups, including one headed by Catholic Relief Services, said Mark Green, USAID administrator. Later, $25 million will be disbursed to help “persecuted communities” in Iraq, primarily Christians on the Nineveh Plains and Yazidis in Sinjar.
That will bring the total of US aid to the two religious minorities in the current fiscal year to more than $100 million, including more than a third of the money allocated for “stabilisation” projects aimed at rebuilding areas liberated from Daesh. The aid push also underscores the priority the Trump administration has placed on helping Christians, even in an era of steep cuts proposed for foreign aid.
The administration was lobbied to send more aid to the two beleaguered communities by groups that had pressed the State Department to declare in 2016 that Daesh had committed genocide against Christians, Yazidis and Shiites.
They expressed concern that time was running out before Christians in the region became “extinct.”